It’s like birthin’ a baby!

This process of self publishing a book has been like birthin’ a baby! It took about the same amount of time, from conception to delivery. I really don’t remember when the book was actually conceived, it has been hanging around in my brain for a few years, much like it must be when you think it would be nice to have a child.

I remember talking about it a few years ago to someone, but at that time, it was just a few poems written in a notebook somewhere, at the bottom of a pile of other notebooks of yoga resources. I had no idea how to turn those poems into a book. So they stayed in the notebook at the bottom of the pile of yoga resources.

Then came Covid. March of 2020, all my classes were shut down. Chair Yoga, Kids Yoga, all canceled. So instead of teaching about 6 yoga classes a week, nothing to do! So I cleaned, and re-arranged things, and even painted the doors and woodwork That took until the middle of April. Things were not opening back up. When I started re-arranging the silverware drawer again, I knew I needed a project.

One day, scrolling through Facebook, I came across a post from Betty Larrea. She is the author of Lucinda’s Magical Yoga Adventure, a book I have used in my kids yoga class. If you teach kids yoga, you probably know it. She had just moved about 3 miles down the road from me. And she was looking for people who wanted to write children’s books and needed some guidance! How does Facebook always know just what I need? It’s weird like that sometimes!

So I contacted Betty, and we started working together on the manuscript. I wrote a few more poems, and outlined a little story to tie them all together. With her editing skills and insight, it slowly became a story with a beginning, middle and end. She really guided me to dig deeper and come up with better words or phrases. Rhyming can be a bit of a challenge, but I kept working on it. Finally we were both happy with the manuscript and ready to move on to the next stage, hiring an illustrator! Stay tuned for the next installment of “birthin’ a baby!”